Category: Toni Morrison

1. Discuss the narrative structure of the novel. Why might Morrison have chosen to present the events in a non-chronological way? 2. Write an essay in which you discuss Morrison’s juxtaposing the primer’s Mother-Father-Dick-Jane sections with Claudia’s and the omniscient narrator’s sections. What is the relationship between these three differing […]

Alaga syrup a brand of cough syrup popular in black communities, especially in the South. Anglophile a term applied to someone who has an enormous admira­tion for and devotion to things British. asafetida bags small bags often used in folk medicine, filled with a bitter, foul-smelling mixture from the roots […]

The Bluest Eye is a harsh warning about the old consciousness of black folks’ attempts to emulate the slave master. Pecola’s request is not for more money or a better house or even for more sensible parents; her request is for blue eyes — something that, even if she had […]

Morrison’s father, sharecropper George Wofford, had similar reasons to escape racial oppression in Georgia and relocate in the North. Even there, however, he distrusted “every word and every gesture of every white man on earth.” In contrast, Morrison’s mother, Ramah, a more educated, trusting person than her husband, was a […]

Cholly defines himself as a “free man” because not only does he function on the periphery of society as other blacks are expected to, but he also lives outside the society of the black community and is the constant source of their gossip. He is responsible for the destruction of […]

Saddled with an alcoholic husband, a rootless son, and an ugly daughter, Pauline turns to a picture-perfect white family for happiness and fulfillment. Transforming herself into the white family’s “perfect servant,” she becomes Polly, parroting the Fishers’ white attitudes and even consoling the little pink-and-white Fisher girl at the expense […]

Claudia recognizes her own inner worth — as well as her own inner violence. She enjoys destroying the white dolls because as she does so, she is satisfying her resentment of white girls and white values that would label her as black and ugly. Claudia and her older sister, Frieda, […]

Except for Claudia and Frieda, Pecola has no friends. She is ridiculed by most of the other children and is insulted and tormented by black schoolboys because of her dark skin and coarse features. She realizes that no one — except Claudia and Frieda — will play with her, socialize […]